White House to invite two sexual slavery victims for visit again next month
Updated: 2014-08-08 06:29:42 KST

Quoting diplomatic sources in Washington, Seoul-based Yonhap News and YTN report that the White House will soon hold another round of meetings with two Korean victims of Japan's wartime sexual enslavement.
Lee Ok-sun and Kang Il-chul, both in their 80s, held closed-door talks with White House officials at the end of last month,.. during a 15-day trip to the U.S. which came to an end on Wednesday.
The upcoming meetings will reportedly be attended by the White House officials in charge of foreign affairs policies.
It's expected they could place pressure on the U.S. State Department to be more proactive in solving the long-standing issue.

International calls on Japan to make amends for forcing women into sexual slavery before and during World War II has picked up in recent weeks.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay criticized Tokyo on Wednesday for failing to resolve the issue.

In response to Pillay's criticism, Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said the issue was covered in a 1965 treaty between Korea and Japan, when Korea received some 8-hundred million dollars in aid and loans as part of the settlement.

Pillay, whose term ends this month, emphasized that the women continue to suffer, decades later, due to the senseless remarks of Japanese officials who continue to deny the atrocities were ever carried out, with some even referring to them as prostitutes.
Park Ji-won, Arirang News.